The Strange Death of the Soviet Empire

British journalist Pryce-Jones views deposed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev as a tragic hero who caused his own undoing because he clung to communism without comprehending the forces for change he had set in motion. Boris Yeltsin, his rival and successor, gained power by contriving a policy of independence and democratization for Russia. Yeltsin then had no grounds for denying the constituent republics the right to do likewise, and the whole Soviet edifice crumbled. Pryce-Jones traveled extensively throughout the former Soviet empire, interviewing ordinary people, dissidents, intellectuals, current and former officials. Including chapters on all the former Iron Curtain regimes, as well as forays ranging from Central Asia to the Baltic republics, he portrays the repressive Soviet empire as a limitless abyss of corruption, degradation, state terror, fear and inefficiency, where central planning fostered a producer's monopoly while impoverishing the mass of the population. Mixing history and reportage, his sweeping panorama is a vital source for understanding what is going on in the former Soviet Union today. (Sept.)